


Whiskey Lullaby

by Lady_Tony_Stark



Category: Avengers (Comics), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-11
Updated: 2015-07-11
Packaged: 2018-04-08 19:45:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4317462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Tony_Stark/pseuds/Lady_Tony_Stark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, life is stronger then the will.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Whiskey Lullaby

_She put him out like the burnin' end of a midnight cigarette_  
_She broke his heart he spent his whole life tryin' to forget_

Tony shook his head, looking so utterly frustrated. “You don’t get it do you?”

“Anthony,”Steve said, for once, ignoring the flinch that the use of his full name caused to his husband. He needed to get Tony to see, needed to get it through his head. “You can’t start a war to stop one. The innocents will always pay for it.”

“They’re already dying! Didn’t you see that fiasco? I’m trying to stop a war, not start one.”

“This registration is going to cause one tony.”

“Just a few protests. It’s for the best. Really.”

Steve stared at the man he’d loved nearly as long as he’d been awake in this century, and felt something starting to break. 

Breaking....breaking....Broke.

_We watched him drink his pain away a little at a time_  
_But he never could get drunk enough to get her off his mind_  
_Until the night_

“Come on tony....”Pepper sighed tiredly, gentle fingers stroking his hair as he stirred.

“Can’t...gotta finish the suit....soon as I remember...”Tony muttered the soft childlike tone, even more painful when she knew just how hot his usual mercurial temper could burn. It hurt to see, see that brilliant mind, reduced to this, to not even understanding how to use a screwdriver. By his own choice. 

This was worse then the drinking he’d been indulging in since before the Civil War, since the moment Steve had left him. Worse even the the sex-a-thon that had happened when he had first lost out to Osborn. No, this was so much worse, becausue she couldn’t glimpse any part of the man he’d once been. 

_He put that bottle to his head and pulled the trigger_  
_And finally drank away her memory_  
_Life is short but this time it was bigger_

“Iron man, report!”The sharp bark of command sounded on the intercom, and for a moment, Tony considered answering the call, of waiting for the rest of his team to get to him, to help.

And yet....sometimes, in moments like this, he remembered, that he cared about them more then himself. And staring down at the Mandarin’s bomb, he knew there was only one choice, and he had only a few minutes to do what he did best. Engineer.

_Than the strength he had to get up off his knees_  
_We found him with his face down in the pillow_  
Steve swallowed thickly as he knelt at Tony’s side, hands trembling ever so slightly as he reached for the clasp to the facemask. Already knowing what he’d find, but he needed to see for sure, needed to look, even if the mangled suit told of a body just as broken as the metal.

Easing the mask off he looked down into bloodless features, he bowed his head some, refusing to let the tears fall. Even knowing Tony had saved all their lives by triggering the bomb he couldn’t defuse before they’d gotten there, had used the suit as a shield, he couldn’t help but hating him a bit for it.

_With a note that said I'll love her till I die_  
_And when we buried him beneath the willow_  
_The angels sang a whiskey lullaby_

“..Tony understood what few people ever would. That the world would never be better then it was. He accepted things as they were, and strove to make things a little better, a little brighter, but he understood, as few so rarely do, that the darkness would always grow as we cast as brighter light. But he still tried to do his part.”

Steve swallowed thickly looking down at the podium, finger absently rubbing against the picture. And it was amazing really, that it was a actual picture instead of one of the hologram frames that tony had been so fond of. But he knew where this picture had been taken, not even because of the utter ridiculous carnival bear Tony was clinging to, or the way he was plastered to Steve’s side. He knew because of just how happy the other looked. It was one of the rare times tony had ever allowed anyone to see how happy he’d been. And it made the words written on the back even worse, because it felt like a knife carving out his chest, knew by the tattered edges it hadn’t been the first time Tony had carried it with him, just the last time it’d been in the suit.

_Till the end, I love him._

_The rumors flew but nobody knew how much she blamed herself_  
_For years and years she tried to hide the whiskey on her breath_

James shook his head at the sight of Steve as he tore into the hydra base, ignoring what his instincts had told him, that Steve had no business being in a fight. Because if there was one thing James knew from bitter experience, was that no matter how hard he tried, a super soldier couldn’t drink the pain away.

_She finally drank her pain away a little at a time_  
_But she never could get drunk enough to get him off her mind_  
_Until the night_

“Dammit Tony....I miss you.”Steve muttered as he leaned back into the couch, looking around the quiet workshop that hadn’t been used in nearly two years, even in the quiet stillness, he could still see the memories in front of his eyes. Seeing the manic genius fluttering here and there like a sugar high butterfly. 

Raising the glass again he sighed, feeling the burn of alcohol sliding down his throat, felt his body already recovering even as it reached his stomach. It just wasn’t enough anymore. Glancing up at the national anthem playing, he flinched so hard he nearly dropped the glass as he remembered what tony had used for the avengers call to action for him.

_She put that bottle to her head and pulled the trigger_  
_And finally drank away his memory_  
_Life is short but this time it was bigger_  
_Than the strength she had to get up off her knees_

“Dammit Steve.”James muttered as he looked down at the blond, stroking blond hair back the limp blond hair from his forehead, swallowing thickly. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”He sighed softly, shaking his head a little as he moved his hand down, tugging the shield out of limp hands. It seemed not even the EMT’s could bring themselves to separate the soldier from his shield.

Shaking his head, James choked on the tears, before turning and walking out of the morgue.

_We found her with her face down in the pillow_  
_Clinging to his picture for dear life_

“The war never ends, we better then most, understood that. He understood that.”James swallowed thickly as he watched the crowd of unmasked heros and legends in their own rights, looking down at the picture he was holding, bracing shaking hands against the podium.”We don;t get to win the war, guys. But he was the legend that died and came back, and that lets us believe we can at least win some of the battles. Sometimes, that’s enough.”

James looked down at the wedding picture he’d found tucked in steve’s ID case, avoiding looking at Natasha, knowing she, like him, knew better. That for Steve Rogers, the fight had ended long before he’d laid down the shield, it’d ended on a blood soaked field under the weight of grief and a twisted Iron man suit.

_We laid her next to him beneath the willow_

Glancing back as they made their way out of the cemetery, he paused, ignoring Natasha’s tugging him as she kept walking, before stopping. Letting him look back. At both the freshly turned dirt and a grave years old. And for a moment, he hoped that what he was seeing, the light shimmering through them, was really happening. “Goodbye guys.”He muttered turning away.

_While the angels sang a whiskey lullaby_

Tony looked up through the speckled shadows of the willow that overhung their graves, offering a small smile to the blond standing in front of him. “Hey Steve.”He muttered as he stepped into the waiting arms.

_While the angels sang a whiskey lullaby_


End file.
